


easy for you to say

by Glowbug



Category: Excalibur (Comic), X-Men (Comicverse)
Genre: Excalibur #2 (2019), F/M, Gen, Poor Remy, Remy is worried and grouchy, Rogue is out cold, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-23
Updated: 2019-11-23
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:20:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21538897
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Glowbug/pseuds/Glowbug
Summary: Remy spends a sleepless night at the newly-grown Excalibur lighthouse.
Relationships: Elizabeth Braddock & Remy LeBeau, Remy LeBeau & Jubilation Lee, Remy LeBeau/Rogue
Comments: 1
Kudos: 19





	easy for you to say

**Author's Note:**

> I hereby beg the AO3 staff: PLEASE OH PLEASE add "Betsy Braddock" to the list of things that will bring up "Elizabeth Braddock" in the character list…

Jubilee breaks the silence left by Betsy's abrupt departure.

"That was harsh, dude. Rogue's our friend too."

Remy doesn't look up from Rogue's moon-pale face. She breathes so slowly, he's terrified if he looks away she'll simply… stop.

"And Betsy's brother just got kidnapped by an evil sorceress or something," Jubes adds. "You didn't have to be nasty to her about it."

He sighs. "Don' really care right now, _petite."_

Silence. The back of his neck prickles under her gaze.

"Yeah, I wouldn't either," she admits after a minute or two. "If this had happened to Shogo I'd blow Apocalypse's head off."

"Wish I _had."_ He'd have got squashed like a bug, but that's not the point. "He ain't worried at all, did you see dat? He knows somethin' he ain't tellin' us. I can't stop thinkin'… mebbe he knew dis was gonna happen."

"We'll get to the bottom of it," Jubilee assures him. "I don't trust the guy any more than you do. Rogue's not stupid, though. I mean… we all know there's hazards to this superhero thing."

 _I feel like I took too much._ His wife's words echo in his brain. It's how she's always described what happened with Carol Danvers way back before he met her, and what happened with Sunfire a couple years back, and maybe not with that Wonder _homme_ but it was on purpose that time, the snag was in putting it back. _Too much..._

Just who or what has imprinted itself on Rogue? Who's she going to be when (or worse, _if)_ she wakes up?

"Uh, Earth to Gambit?"

Remy shakes himself. _"Pardon, petite."_

Jubilee scoots over next to him. "It's not Bets' fault, I said. That this happened."

 _"Je sais,"_ Remy admits reluctantly. No power in this realm or any other could've stopped Rogue from touching that portal, not with their friend and teammate in trouble on the other side. "'S just… I… I can't lose her now, _petite._ We've come so far to get here, an' I jus'… _can't."_

Jubes sighs tiredly, but she puts a hand on his shoulder. He touches it briefly in gratitude. His wedding ring sparkles in the moonlight. Eyes stinging sharply, he folds his hands under his chin.

"I'm going to bed, I think. I'm beat. You want me to find you a moss pillow or something?"

Remy tries without success to smile. "I don' think so, _petite._ But thanks."

"Okay." Jubilee gets up. "Try to get some sleep."

He nods. Her footsteps tap a path out of the room and down the stairs.

He traces his ring with his finger. Rogue's still wearing hers, the only thing that survived that… transformation, invasion, he's not sure what to call it. Is she really glowing, or is that just the moonlight on her skin? He's not sure.

"Guess she's right, huh, _chère_ _?"_ He has no idea whether Rogue can hear him, but hell with it, he needs to imagine she can. "I'll 'pologize t' Bets in de mornin'."

He hasn't been alone with her since their walk on the beach. It's chillier here than Krakoa. The sea breeze nips. Maybe he should find her a blanket. Will those magic mutant flowers keep her warm enough? He shrugs out of his coat, not wanting to leave to search the rest of the tower, but it won't stay put when he drapes it over her. The flower stems keep bending and somehow the coat slips off to one side every time, leaving her exposed. After a quarter hour of trying he gives it up, murmuring apologies under his breath.

"You come through worse than dis before," he tells her. "You don't end here. You don't end like dis—remember, _ma cherie_ _?"_

There is, of course, no answer.

" _Je vous salue, Marie pleine de grâce, le Seigneur est avec vous."_ He's not often a praying man, but sometimes…

He wishes to God he'd called Tante Mattie instead of bringing Rogue to this outcropping of hostile selkies and invisible druids and magics that make no sense to him. Now it's too late. Rogue's tangled up in this tower as surely as a cat tangled up in yarn, and unlike a cat in yarn he dares not try to cut her loose.

_"Vous êtes bénie entre toutes les femmes et Jésus, le fruit de vos entrailles, est béni. Sainte Marie, Mère de Dieu, priez pour nous, pauvres pécheurs, maintenant, et à l'heure de notre mort…"_

_Don't let her die. Don't take her away from me now._

"Amen," he chokes in a whisper. _"S'il te plaît, ramène-la-moi."_

Rogue looks almost peaceful. If only she didn't remind him so of a porcelain doll under glass.

"C'mon back t' me, _mon coeur._ "

Nothing.

In silence, he watches her breathe. In and out. In, and out.

* * *

Even a swift rout of their attackers fails to make him happy to see Apocalypse. He's too angry and too frightened for his wife to get a good read on the blue bastard's emotions, but he _definitely_ doesn't like the plan Apocalypse suggests.

"Hell if I'm leaving you alone anywhere with Rogue!"

"Gambit," Betsy cuts in. "I _need_ you." Damn it all, she's serious. Can't she see what she's asking?

"I need _her,"_ he insists. He was fool enough once to let Apocalypse change him, take him so far away from himself it took a devil's bargain to bring him back. Rogue's too smart to volunteer for that, but she's unconscious, she's vulnerable…

"Please." Betsy's fear for her brother falls in step with Remy's for Rogue, a matched set. "I will never again ask anything of you. And if he hurts her, I will take it on my soul."

Rogue would tell him to do this. She'd tell him to help Bets, that Kitty's right and she's too tough to bring down easily. Brian Braddock is _definitely_ in trouble _right now_. Rogue might be okay for a little while… but he can't just _leave_ her… but…

Before he can make up his mind, Betsy makes it up for him, enveloping them all in a blaze of white light. Remy blinks, and then Jubes is freaking out because there's an empty space in her arms where Shogo used to be and something _huge_ blows hot air on him. He smells sulfur. Turns around to find himself face-to-belly with an _enormous_ , bright blue, honest-to-goodness fairy-tale dragon.

"Where did _dat_ come from?!" he yells.

"Shoooooogoooo?" the dragon burbles.

 _"Where is my baby?"_ Jubilee screams. Betsy summons up a psychic sword and shield.

And Remy? Remy curses and grabs his cards. Wouldn't be much of an X-Man if he let his teammates get eaten by a _dragon,_ now, would he? No time to hesitate, he's here now (damn it) and he's needed. The quicker they deal with the dragon—and this King Arthur business—the quicker he'll be back where he _really_ needs to be.

(By her side.)

_Just hold on, ma colombe._

Remy prays she's all right when he gets there.


End file.
